Skip to content
BlackStar Festival 2025 - July 31st to 3rd August BlackStar Festival 2025 - July 31st to 3rd August

Back to Films A-Z

Short Narrative

Budget Paradise

Screenings
  • Closed captions online Closed Captioning
  • Open captions in-person Open Captions
  • Trigger warning: Flashing lights - 08:46-09:03 Trigger Warning
A film still from Budget Paradise shows a series of blue washing machines in a laundromat. The second to last washing machine door is open. The glass on the door blurs the face of a young person sitting on a stool with their back against the washer looking out into the distance.

Screenings

In-Person
Virtual

Black nonbinary painter Chester searches for space and belonging in their rapidly changing hometown, navigating identity, creativity and the struggle for permission to exist on their own terms.

Directors Spotlight

LaTajh Simmons-Weaver

Director

LaTajh Simmons-Weaver is a screenwriter and director from Oakland, CA. Their work blends humor, imagination, and irony to explore overlooked stories within Black Queer dynamics, examining how these communities learn to cope with everyday injustices.

  • Year 2024
  • Runtime 14 minutes
  • Country United States
  • Language English
  • Director LaTajh Simmons-Weaver
  • Producer Caitlyn Durkin, Chris Walters, Sean Gillane
  • Executive Producer Reina Lam
  • Cast Ashley Hernandez
  • Cinematographer Sarah Jaffe
  • Editor Ashley Rodholm
  • Production Design Keri Shewmaker
  • Composer NYRE
  • Music NYRE
  • Premiere East Coast

You may also like

SIGN UP OR FOLLOW US FOR UPDATES

Sign up One moment